The New Zealand Experience - October 29th–30th, 2006

Our New Zealand Experience has gotten off to a great start. The first two days we have been at a beautiful little Christian camp which is located north of Auckland about two hours. It has been the perfect place to relax and get over jet lag, get to know each other better, have valuable instruction sessions, and enjoy the beauty around us.

We went on our first photo shoot on Monday afternoon to a beach very near the camp where we were staying. Having never seen the ocean before, this was an incredible experience for me. I couldn't even take pictures for awhile because I was so enthralled with the crashing waves, unending white beach, and millions of seashells of every size shape and color. God truly knows how to create beauty! It was the perfect location to be able to put into practice the things we had just reviewed and learned that morning.

Afer arriving back at the camp, we were given various assignments to shoot for the directors to use for advertising. We enjoyed posing for each other while using the zipline and other various activities the camp has to offer. It was nice to be able to give something back to them for being able to use their beautiful facility.

I am really looking forward to how this trip is going to challenge us and help us to grow in our knowlege of photography and also who God is. On Sunday morning Rowan shared with us some insightful thoughts on knowing God. A lot of people live their whole life with a chip on their shoulder because God failed to fulfill their expectations at some point or other and thus they feel like God has let them down. God is faithful to keep His promises and if we think He hasn't then we don't really know Him. We need to study His Word and find out who God really is, not just who we think He is. I think this amazing trip to New Zealand is going to be a wonderful opportunity to get to know God in a whole new way.

—Susan Tiegs from Minnesota, USA

View the gallery of today's pictures